Australia's women footballers get equal pay in landmark deal
The Matildas will also be allowed to travel business class for international travel, as the men do
Australia's top women soccer players will now earn the same as their male counterparts after a landmark deal Wednesday that aimed to close the gender pay gap between the country's national teams.
The women's Westfield Matildas and the men's Caltex Socceroos will also share an equal split of all commercial revenues, CNN reports. Previously, the Socceroos earned a greater share of revenues generated by the team and were paid more to play.
The Matildas will also be allowed to travel business class for international travel, as the men do, and coaching and operational support will be brought to the same standard as the men's team.
The wide-ranging, four-year deal, called the Collective Bargaining Agreement, was struck Wednesday between soccer governing body Football Federation Australia (FFA) and the players' union, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA).
Pay disparity between men's and women's professional footballers has been in the spotlight since the US women's team sued governing body US Soccer in March alleging gender discrimination in earnings and working conditions.
Australia's Matildas launched a campaign to pressure global soccer governing body FIFA to provide equal prize-money at World Cups ahead of the women's tournament in France earlier this year.
The US women's team received $4 million for winning the World Cup in France out of the tournament's total prize-money pool of $30 million.
In the 2018 men's tournament in Russia, winners France banked $38 million from a pool of $400 million.